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Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz briefs on Iraqi Civil Defense Corps

Presenter: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul WolfowitzOctober 25, 2003

DEPSECDEF WOLFOWITZ: We just had a fascinating briefing about what I think is a wonderful success story: standing up the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. These are young Iraqis stepping forward to fight for their country alongside our people. The capabilities they bring to us are very substantial. They can do things we can’t do. Obviously we have capabilities they don’t have, but they can communicate with people with the speed that our people can’t do working through translators. They can read the local situation, the population, in ways we can’t do. Iraqis come forward to them with information much more readily then they do with us. General Ordierno shared with me this morning his morning situation report. Just glancing at the first page, there were two different incidents where Iraqi Civil Defense Corps people located improvised explosive devices or identified suspect vehicles that are troops probably could not have done. So it’s a wonderful success story. It is something we have been working hard to accelerate and I think it speaks volumes that these young Iraqis -one of their problems is they want uniforms that aren’t from the old regime. They hate the old regime and this notion that the Sunni Arabs love Saddam Hussein is just a lot of nonsense. They too, were persecuted badly by the old crowd and they’re eager to get rid of them.